Author's note: Hey, I'm starting writing chapter 2 only a day after posting chapter 1, though clearly I haven't posted for a week. This is because as I type this I am running on copious amounts of Caffine and 3 hours of sleep. Thanks for coming back
Warning: Language
Disclaimer: Mario Bros and all things related are not mine, I only own the witch and any names you don't recognize from the games.
Never Look Back
Mario and Luigi tramped across a barren wasteland, there were many unexplored segments of the Darklands, and this was the least inhabited of any the brothers had seen so far. There was a fort up ahead, and a castle in the distance. If they could make it to that castle they could probably learn which of Bowser's many castles he was currently residing in.
As they approached closer and closer to the fort, they saw a few members of the Koopa Troop and other supporters of Bowser coming in and out of the fort talking to guards and each other, none of them noticed the advancing plumbers until the two Italian brothers were close enough to cough and get their attention.
"Oh shit!" A Hammber bro cried standing up straight and raising his hammer defensively. A Shy-Guy gave a short shriek, but said nothing, and a Dry Bones jumped up from where he had been lying as if to take a nap.
"The Mario Brothers!" People started crying.
"What are they doing here?"
"Did someone miss orders from the Boss to keep an eye on them?"
"Should we capture them?
Clearly the fort was not prepared or even expecting their arrival. Mario and Luigi cast nervous glances at each other, before Mario cleared his throat and announced. "Pardon-a me!" His voice silenced the growing crowd of ready to panic workers. "We-a aren't here for a fight-a. We-a want to speak-a to Bowsah, do any-a of you know-a where he is-a?"
The guards looked at each other questioningly. The Shy-Guy spoke, soft, but clear, "Why do you want to speak with His Ungratefulness?"
Mario put his hands on his hips, "That-a is private-a information." He said simply.
The Koopa Troop started to raise their weapons, Mario tensed, ready for a fight when Luigi stepped forward with his arms raised, "We-a have received-a threat, which-a mentioned Bowsah, we-a just want-a to be sure-a that we-a aren't being lead-a on a wild-a goose chase."
The group glanced at each other, credit maybe to the accent or they really had no idea had what was going on, but they lowered their weapons and whispered to each other quietly. Mario grabbed his brother and in a hushed voice demanded to know why he had told them that.
"We-a don't have time-a to be picking fights-a!" Luigi hissed at him, "Best be on everyone's good-a side if we want-a to save-a Daisy!"
It was almost scary how forceful Luigi could be when Daisy was in danger. Mario rolled his eyes, but could find no reason to argue with his younger brother. Even if he had, the Hammer bro approached him with his hammer raised forcefully, but not threateningly.
"It just so happens that Bowser, is in a castle reachable through a warp pipe in the ol' abandoned one, right up here." He said, "We will escort you under armed guard, perhaps Lord Bowser will speak to you, perhaps not." this was not up for negotiation.
He beckoned the group standing nearby, the Dry-Bone, the Shy-Guy and a Goomba. They surrounded the brothers. Mario tensed, he hated that there were weapons pointed at him and he could do nothing about it lest he start a fight. He glared up at the castle in the distance, at the pace they were going it would take at least an hour to reach the castle, and who knew how long it would take to talk to Bowser, if Bowser would talk to them at all. If Daisy and Peach were in any danger, would they have time to rescue them?
–
Perhaps if he hadn't been so exhausted Bowser would have realized something was wrong. Since Ludwig had dropped by earlier that morning the King hadn't heard a peep from any of his other kids. Strange as it was that he hadn't had to break up a fight or at least threaten to break up a fight, Bowser was simply too tired to think too hard about it. Ludwig had probably just warned his siblings ahead of time that their father was going to be grumpier than usual today and they were doing their best to stay on his good side. Or maybe they were all aware of why Bowser had been up all night.
Whatever the case, for a while Bowser thought he was having a pretty good day. That was until Kamek arrived with startling news. The Mario Bros were in custody, on their way to his palace, and they 'only wanted to talk'.
As soon as his long time adviser had said it, Bowser bit his tongue to be sure he wasn't asleep. "What was that?" He asked all though it sounded more like 'whamusat?'
"The Mario brothers." Kamek repeated slowly, "A Shy-Guy at the fort in the wastes just sent a message saying that the brothers approached their post and asked to see you. They mentioned something about a threat and they want to know if we have any other information."
"That don't make any sense." Bowser replied groggily.
"Hmmm, it does seem a bit suspicious though, hall I double the number of guards on duty?" Kamek asked.
'Whatever." Bowser brushed some stray strands of hair out of his eyes with his claws, "How long until they get here?"
"About half an hour I think, depending on if they've run into anything else out in the wastes, you know how unpredictable that land is."
Bowser merely shrugged, "I'll go wait at the warp pipe, and if I even sense the tiniest bit of funny business…" Bowser blew a small lick of flame, but even a small one was enough to catch the nearby curtains on fire, which Kamek quickly put back out with a water spell. Bowser had something he'd wanted to say after his demonstration of his fiery prowess, but he'd either forgotten it or fell asleep on his feet again. Kamek coughed once to snap Bowser's attention.
"Go find the Koopalings, I haven't seen anyone except Ludwig all day." Bowser ordered, "Make sure they aren't, you know, doing…stuff."
"My liege, perhaps, just this once you should take a power nap?" Bowser glared daggers at Kamek for the suggestion, but Kamek quickly continued, "Not to say you can't make it through the day without sleep of course, but it would probably be better to face the Marios with at least some rest." The Magikoopa added.
"Fine, whatever. Just find my kids."
"Right away Sire."
As the Mario Bros walked with weapons pointed at them they understood what their guards had meant when they said this castle was abandoned. Clearly nobody had been here for years, perhaps not even Bowser himself. They left clear footprints in the dust everywhere they stepped and the echoes of their foot falls jumped back to them from wall to wall. There were paintings hung crooked or fallen to the ground that were so faded it was impossible to tell who the subjects were.
The group stayed close together, except for the Goomba who would run around, and explore, though she stayed within sight of the group. Mario had asked if they should be on the watch out for ghosts and the guards had merely laughed, except the Shy-Guy who remained silent.
"No one, not even Boos come into this place except by accident in the warp pipes, or to get thrown out into the wastes." The Hammer Bro told them.
"Wastes-a?" Luigi asked, looking nervously around them. The place might have been abandoned, but something about the castle made his hair stand on end.
"That desert back there." The Dry Bones said, "It's called the wastes because nothing grows around here."
"And you're only stationed out here if you're a waste of time." The Shy-Guy added, breaking his silence for the first time since leaving the fort.
"What?" The brothers asked in unison.
The Hammer Bro knocked the Shy-Guy upside the head with his hammer, and a side from a soft 'ow' the Shy-Guy did nothing. "You moron, why did you say that? Now they're going to think we're retards!"
"Wouldn't be far from the truth." The Shy-Guy muttered, "At least not in your case."
The Goomba and Dry Bones laughed, and the Hammer Bro glared at his companions, "You guys suck."
"Not as much as you do." The Goomba said sticking her tongue out.
"Watch it." The Hammer Bro growled raising his hammer threateningly.
"What are you going to do?" The Goomba teased dropping back and running surprisingly fast around the group. "You can't aim for shit!"
The Hammer Bro looked hurt by the comment, but said nothing.
"Wait, What-a is this?" Mario asked.
The Dry Bones looked at him. "We aren't exactly the top of our troops, nobody at that fort is. We're all outcasts, misfits, and klutzes." As if to prove this claim, he suddenly tripped and fell apart. He quickly reassembled himself, something that had happened quite a few times since they had left. "Goomblina, over there has the attention span of gnat and Hanc can't aim."
Goomblina jumped up almost happily clicking her feet together in the air. "That's us!" She piped.
Hanc, the Hammer Bro pouted, but said nothing.
Marion looked up at the front of the group. "And what about the Shy-Guy?"
"Don't call me that." He replied, "I have a name."
Mario waited for the introduction, but when the silence continued asking, "And-a if you-a have a name-a, what is it?"
"You are not qualified to know that." The Shy-Guy said simply.
Mario rolled his eyes, "So if I can't-a call you Shy-Guy, and you won't-a tell me your name-a, what do-a I call you?"
Don't be fancy." The Hammer Bro said, "Just call him 'Hey you' like everyone else."
"Or Shorty." The Dry Bones added. "And don't bother asking what he did to end up here no one knows. He won't tell anyone." He tripped again and fell apart.
"And-a what about you?" Luigi asked, after he reassembled "What's your-a name?"
"Bones VI." He replied, "Or just Bones. It's stupid I know, a Dry Bones called Bones, but I don't want to explain."
"No need-a." Mario replied, "I feel-a the same way-a when people ask about my name-a."
"Why?" Bones asked.
"Because-a we're the 'Mario Bros'." Luigi answered for his brother, "That mean's that-a Mario is our Surname-a, people always-a ask-a Mario what-a his first-a name is."
And-a I don't want-a to talk about-a it." Mario said definitively folding his arms, and decided to change the subject before any of their guards decided to ask him anyway. "So why-a was this-a place abandoned-a?"
The company all looked at each other and shrugged, "No one knows really. The most logical reason is that there just was no reason to stay here since the land was so inhabitable, you know we have to keep an eye on our stock and order more food if we start running low." Goomblina answered, "But the more commonly believed story is that this castle was built over a black magic hot spot, a bunch of people would go missing and never return. They say half the Royal Koopas disappeared before the king at the time- that would be King Bowser's Great-great-great-something-uncle, I think- decided it was too dangerous to stay there and moved the remaining family out."
Luigi felt something, like a breeze or a breath on his neck, and turned, but saw nothing. He whimpered slightly. He almost swore he could feel the missing people walking around, looking for help, never finding it. Mario put a hand on his brother's shoulder to calm him before he started bawling. "Remember Daisy." The older brother mouthed.
And just like that Luigi was brave again. "How much further to the warp pipe?"
"It's just up ahead." Shorty said pointing in front of them where they could see footprints, a fine layer of dust covered them, but there were defiantly foot prints in the hall, "Those are ours from when we were stationed out here, we just follow them from here..."
Goomblina ran a head of them, Hanc stayed on their left, Bones on their right, and Shorty kept a good pace just a few feet in front of the brothers. At last they came to a door, and with a little effort opened it. Inside there was a purple Warp pipe, that was in as good of condition as the rest of the castle, but still working. There was a fresher set of footprints circling the room before exiting another door.
"Hmm, that's odd." Shorty said looking at the foot prints, "I wonder who made these…?"
"Probably just some loser who got lost." Hanc said, he poked Mario's shoulder. "His Ruthlessness should be waiting for you on the other side, we need to get back to our post. Goomblina! Shorty! Come on!" He instructed.
The guards turned and began they're way back through the castle, leaving the brothers alone in the room with the warp pipe. "Alright-a." Mario said after a long while of silence. "Here-a goes nothing!"
The brothers took hands again and jumped into the warp pipe together.
Like Hanc had said, Bowser was waiting when the Marios jumped out of the warp pipe. He was pacing again, he'd expected that at least on of his children would come by, or someone who did would have at least seen them, but no one had heard from the Koopalings all morning. Bowser tried not to worry, but Kamek hadn't comeback yet either.
The Marios landed with practiced grace in front of the warp pipe. Though he had taken the suggested power nap, the Koopa King was still pretty groggy and didn't want to waste any more time on the plumbers. "What do you want?" He snapped.
He expected Mario to answer, usually he was the one who confronted him, but instead it was the green clad brother -what was his name Luggy?- who stepped forward with his phone.
"Listen-a to this-a" He said pushing a button, "And tell-a me if you-a know what-a she means-a."
From the looks on the plumbers' faces they'd rather not spend valuable time bickering either, Bowser grumbled a bit, but listened.
"Ello? Daisy, is that-a you?" Came the green plumber's recorded voice which was followed by a scream that cut off suddenly. "Daisy? Daisy? Daisy! What happened? Daisy!" He continued to whine.
Just as Bowser was about to roll his eyes a cold voice answered "Daisy can't play right now. Maybe perhaps you could ask Bowser if you can come over. I'm sure he could use some company real soon..."
"What?" The recording asked, "Bowsah? What about Bowsah? Hey!"
There was silence, Bowser waited to see if there was anymore, but there was none. "What the hell was that?" he snarled.
"We don't-a know." Mario replied, "We-a hoped you-a might know-a something."
"Why would I know?" Bowser growled blowing smoke between his teeth menacingly, "If you're implying I had something to do with this-"
"That's-a not what-a we meant-a!" Green-stache said, cutting him off in the middle of his threat, "The woman-a on the phone-a, she said-a that you could-a use some company real-a soon."
"I'm King Bowser, I don't need playmates." The Koopa snorted, "Why don't you go back to your pasta hole and stop bugging me."
"But wait a minute-a!" the more Bowser thought about it he was pretty sure the other plumber's name was Louie or something. "It-a says you-a will be in need-a of company soon-a! Has anyone-a around here-a vanished?"
Bowser's eyes widened slightly at that. He hadn't heard from his kids, but that couldn't possibly mean that someone would dare-
"Bowser!" All heads turned at Kamek's panicked outcry, "Master, the Koopalings! I can't find them anywhere and nobody seems to have seen them either!" Kamek froze in midflight when he saw the Mario bros, "Eeerrr..." he squeaked glancing between the shocked expressions of the Koopa King and the Plumber brothers.
Bowser snapped out of it first, "WHERE ARE THEY?" He roared, his temper flaring and matched only by his worry for his children.
"I- I don't know sire, no one heard anything!" Kamek replied
Just as Bowser's jaws opened for another roar of fury, laughter echoed around them as if it were coming from every direction at once, rather than one, the same voice that they had all heard over the phone. Bowser looked around wildly with smoke billowing between his teeth and the glow of fire burning in his throat, "WHERE ARE YOU?" he snarled.
The Mario bros looked around too. The laughing voice went quiet, almost as quickly as it started. "There!" Mario cried pointing up to the corner of the room, just above the door. There was what appeared to be a shadow of a woman, riding on a broom, carrying beneath her a cage filled with indistinguishable silhouettes.
The shadow shifted and pulled itself off the wall, the blackness melted off it, revealing a beautiful woman with waist length light brown hair that had a streak of darker brown hair framing the left side of her face. Her right eye was bright blue, with a perfectly round pupil, the left one was as red as Bowser's with a slit cat-like pupil. Below her, in a cage carried by magic, was all eight of Bowser's children and the two princesses.
"Mario!" Peach cried.
"Luigi!" Daisy shouted grasping the bars of their cage and reaching out toward them.
The Koopings all cried out for their father, each one calling him by a different name resulting in a jumble of unintelligible crying.
Bowser snarled, and let loose a warning flame across the floor, "LET THEM GO!" He roared and leaped forward without waiting for a response.
The witch laughed again, "I don't think so." She said vanishing, making Bowser run into the door and busting it open. She reappeared exactly where she had been a moment ago, "Sorry honey, Zehtah has to go home now, but you and the Mario brothers can keep playing with out me!" She teased as she flew over Bowser out his door while he shook rubble of himself.
"GET BACK HERE!" Bowser bellowed giving chase with speed that surprised the Marios as they ran to keep up.
Mario and Luigi kept just behind Bowser's tail as they ran through a labyrinth of halls, chasing the witch and her hostages. Another set of doors blocked the witch's path, but she simply waved her wand and they opened for her. Fortunately she wasn't paying attention to how close Bowser and the brothers were behind her, the door closed, but not before they dove through outside. Mario and Luigi didn't waste a second, as Bowser rose from the ground they ran up his tail and back and jumped over his shoulders into the air. They grasped the edge out the metal cage and quickly pulled themselves up.
"Peach! Daisy!" The brothers cried as they reach through the bars to each Princess. "We'll get you out of there!"
Peach and Daisy held each other fearfully, the Koopalings huddled together behind them, the older and bigger ones standing protectively over the smaller and younger ones, glaring at the Mario brothers. Even while in danger the family wouldn't forget their loathing for the plumbers. "Daddy!" Bowser Junior barked suddenly.
A shadow fell over them and with a thud Bowser landed clutching onto the sides of the cage with his claws, trying to get his footing, but continuously slipping. His weight caused everyone to be lurched toward him, and only their grips on the bars kept the Marios from falling. Since the cage was teathered by magic, Zehtah the witch didn't notice the extra passengers. The snarled angrily and let his feet dangle while he tried to use his teeth to chew the lock off.
"Its-a no good-a Bowsah!" Mario shouted, "You'll nevah, get it that-a way!"
Bowser shot a sideways glare at him, but didn't reply, instead turned back to the lock, "Move to the sides!" He ordered.
The Koopalings did as they were told, but Daisy and Peach looked at each other questioningly, "What? Why?" Daisy asked.
"Move it!" Bowser hissed and his throat began to glow with growing fire. At this the princesses dashed to either side of the cage, Bowser held the flame for several long seconds before blowing out a white hot flame which made the bars dangerously hot. The lock melted, as did several bars, Bowser used his head to knock the door to the cage open. "Come on!" he snarled.
Peach came out first, the closest to the door. Unfortunately what Bowser's weight had failed to do his fire breath did, and Zehtah looked down to see the attepted rescue.
"Oh no you don't!" She shouted, throwing a spelled down that knocked Mario and Luigi off the cage. Bowser held on, but the rocking propelled Peach into his chest and his grip started to loosen. Zaetah hissed another spell, one that hit Bowser full on and he fell, on instinct he wrapped his arm around Peach, blocking her from Zehtah's view, and making sure that she got out.
The spell sent a strange shock through Bowser's body, and he had fallen several yards before he even realized he was in pain. He let out a strangled cry, let go of Peach, and his vision danced with purple lights. What he didn't know was that he wasn't imagining the purple lights, the engulfed his body wracking pain through him until his mind couldn't take it anymore and he blacked out from it.
Before anyone could jump out of the cage, Zehtah zapped one more spell and the bars repaired themselves. She sped of her flight, almost desperate to get away with her hostages, she in such a hurry she didn't even notice that she was a passenger short.
Peach landed on her back painfully. Her body spasmed with pain, and it took all her will not to pass out, she managed to open her eyes, and with some effort pull herself into a sitting position. The ground shook around her, at first Peach didn't understand why, her head was pounding, but as she glanced around she saw Bowser had landed not too far away from her. The princess blinked, Bowser wasn't moving.
She forced herself to her feet. Bad guy or not, Bowser had helped her, and she was just to kind hearted to not check on him. After a dizzying moment Peach thought she was going to faint, but managed limp her way to the fallen Koopa. "Bowser?" She called weakly.
She could see he was breathing, and his eye slit opened for a brief moment before closing again. He was alive, but unconscious. Peach lifted a hand to touch him, but when she did a spark of purple lighting shocked her fingers forcing her to draw it back. Bowser made a pained whining noise, more like the whimper of an injured dog than the mighty Koopa. Small bolts of the purple lighting sparked all over Bowser's body for a moment, and then stopped. Peach stepped back confused. The King Koopa almost looked like he was shrinking.
Some distance away Mario ran across the field to his brother, "Weegee! Are you alright-a?"
The green clad brother nodded, while he caught his breath, he pointed towards the north, "I saw-a Bowsah fall that-a way, I think I saw-a Peach too."
"Let's go!" Mario cried grabbing his brother and bolting off in the direction his brother had pointed.
The change in landscape was very aprupt, they could still see the volcano palace Bowser lived in from their current whereabouts, but they were currently in a grassy field. To the West of them, there was a twisting river, and to the East there was dead forest petrified in ash from an ancient eruption of Bowser's volcano. Closer to where Bowser, and maybe Peach, had landed there were a bunch of rocks, they could only pray that if Peach had landed that she hadn't been skewered on them.
As they crossed a small his they could see Peach standing over someone who laid face down in the dirt. He was naked.
"Peach!" Mario called as he ran down the incline toward her and the mysterious person on the ground. "Who-a is that?" He asked when he came to a stop, Luigi only two steps behind him.
The man groaned, his voice sounded strange and yet familiar at the same time. Peach turned to him slowly, with a shocked expression on her face, Mario thought perhaps because there was a naked man in front of her, but when she spoke, the answer was enough to send both brother's into their own shock.
"It's Bowser."
Author's end note: I finished this later than I thought I would, and classes start soon (I'm in college so I'll have a lot of homework) so I don't know when I will be able to update this again. Please remember to review and tell me what you think!
